Chíxīn Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng 持心梵天所問經
Sūtra of the Questions of Brahmā Dhāraṇī-mati translated by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
The Chíxīn Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng (T585) is the four-fascicle Western Jìn translation by Dharmarakṣa 竺法護 (竺法護) of the Brahma-viśeṣa-cintī-paripṛcchā-sūtra (also known as Brahmaparipṛcchā or Viśeṣacintā-brahma-paripṛcchā). Chíxīn Fàntiān 持心梵天 = “Brahmā Who Holds the Mind,” for Viśeṣacintin / Viśeṣamati — the celestial interlocutor whose questions structure the sūtra.
Prefaces
The text opens with the canonical formula. The colophon to Chū sānzàng jì jí (T2145) dates Dharmarakṣa’s translation to Tàikāng 太康 7, third month, tenth day = 27 April 286 CE.
Abstract
A major Mahāyāna sūtra on emptiness (śūnyatā), the bodhisattva path, and the non-arising of phenomena, framed as a dialogue between the Buddha and the bodhisattva-Brahmā Viśeṣacintin. The sūtra was retranslated twice in Chinese: by Kumārajīva as the KR6i0218 Sīyì Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng 思益梵天所問經 (T586) and by Bodhiruci I as KR6i0220 Shèngsīwéi Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng 勝思惟梵天所問經 (T587). Dharmarakṣa’s version, dated by colophon to 286 CE, is the earliest. A complete Tibetan parallel survives as Tshangs pa khyad par sems kyis zhus pa.
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. L’Enseignement de Vimalakīrti. Louvain, 1962 — extensive cross-references to the Brahmaparipṛcchā cycle.
- Boucher, Daniel. “Dharmarakṣa and the Transmission of Buddhism to China.” Asia Major 19 (2006): 13–37.
- Skilton, Andrew. “Brahmaparipṛcchā studies.” Journal of the Pali Text Society 26 (2000): 105–125.
Links
- CBETA T15n0585
- Kanseki DB
- 竺法護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (286, 300) — Boucher, Daniel. “Buddhist Translation Procedures in Third-Century China: A Study of Dharmarakṣa and his Translation Idiom.” PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996. 267.